The West De Pere football team has not entered many games the past decade considered an underdog.

This might be one of them.

The Phantoms will travel Friday night to Menasha in a showdown of undefeated teams to decide the Bay Conference champion.

West De Pere was the class of the conference until last season, when its unprecedented run of seven straight league championships ended with a loss to Hortonville.

The Polar Bears moved out of the Bay after the season and into the Valley Football Association-South, with Menasha taking their place.

If anything, the task got even more difficult with the inclusion of a Bluejays team that made it to a WIAA Division 2 state semifinal in 2013, a run that included beating Green Bay Southwest, Fox River Classic Conference champion Ashwaubenon and Hortonville in the first three rounds.

They return senior quarterback Tyler Johnson, who has thrown for 759 yards and 12 touchdowns in league play and rushed for 212 yards. They also have a top-flight receiver in senior Emanuel Jenkins (23 catches, 368 yards and seven TDs) and a big, physical running back in 5-foot-11, 210-pound senior Matt Rhode (61 carries, 601 yards, eight TDs).

"To be honest, we are hoping we can stay in the game with them," West De Pere coach Jack Batten said. "They are a very, very, very skilled football team."

Maybe that's a way of taking pressure off his team with a nothing-to-lose attitude, or perhaps it's just speaking the truth about a Menasha team that Batten knows many people are picking to win.

"We haven't looked at it any differently than any other week. We are just preparing like we always do. We have super-intense, spirited practices and getting ready for whatever shows up on Friday night."

The two teams easily have been the best in the nine-team league, and not just record-wise.

West De Pere is averaging a league-high 45.7 points per game, while Menasha is second with 41.7. The Bluejays have allowed a league-low 5.9 points a contest, while the Phantoms have permitted the second fewest at 7.7.

West De Pere is the only team in the league to pile up more than 3,000 yards of offense, but it will be going up against a Menasha defense that has allowed only 479 total yards. The Phantoms have given up the second-fewest yards, but it's almost 1,000 more than the Bluejays.

"We kind of go into it with the underdog mentality because you don't want to go into it too confident," West De Pere running back Dom Conway said. "At the same time, I think we feel like we are comparable to Menasha and we both are good teams. I feel like we are evenly matched, and it will be a good game because they are just as good a team as us."

Conway likely will have to be on his game for West De Pere to win, which has not been a problem for the senior.

The 5-10, 170-pound Conway leads the Bay with 1,354 yards and 19 touchdowns while averaging a league-high 10.7 yards per carry.

If anything, he seems to be getting and feeling stronger as the season goes on. After rushing for 214 yards and two TDs on 27 carries in a nonconference win over Merrill last week, Conway woke up the next day before workouts and felt like he was ready to play another game.

He has rushed for at least 100 yards each week and more than 200 yards in half of them. It includes a program single-game rushing record 363 yards against Denmark and 311 against Luxemburg-Casco.

West De Pere also has senior quarterback Beau Mommaerts, who is second in the league with 891 yards and is tied with Johnson for first with 12 TDs. He also has rushed for 289 yards and 10 TDs.

Wide receiver Connor Konshak, meanwhile, ranks third in the league with 457 receiving yards and is tied for first with seven TDs.

Winning a conference championship for the seniors, before what they hope is a successful postseason run, is certainly a goal.

"We are concerned about both equally, but this week it's about the conference title," Conway said. "We want to secure that and then move onto the playoffs. As a senior class, I know a lot of us have tried to take leadership throughout the year. The summer. Winter workouts. All of that. Summer camps.

"Just try to take leadership and make sure that the team is on point with everything."